Doubling in size while becoming "so much more professional"

About the practice

SMAC Studio Interior Architecture is a Melbourne-based multidisciplinary practice offering spatial planning, interior design, and furnishing services. Having recently doubled from three to six team members, they serve busy, successful clients who value their homes but need efficient, transparent project management.

The issue

Excel spreadsheets and scattered documentation

Before Programa, SMAC managed projects through Excel spreadsheets and scattered documentation. This led to costly surprises at project completion—clients discovering $2,000 selections they didn't remember approving, no clear time tracking for their hourly fee structure, and reluctance to bring procurement in-house due to complexity.

The fix

Centralized templates, dashboards, and procurement

SMAC now runs all operations through Programa: project templates for consistency, client dashboards for 24/7 project visibility, transparent procurement with automatic margin calculations, and integrated time tracking. Every specification, approval, and communication lives in one searchable platform accessible to all six team members.

The result

Projects close without surprises, profitable scaling

Projects now close without surprises—every selection approved, every cost transparent. SMAC confidently brought procurement in-house as a new revenue stream. New staff onboard within a week using standardized templates. Time tracking ensures profitable hourly billing as they scale. The studio has achieved what Principal Shona McElroy calls a "full business operation" that's "better than I could have imagined."